Google Ads location targeting: presence only or interest too?

Location targeting in Google Ads defaults to people physically in your target area, but the "interest" option is still sitting in advanced settings, and people keep arguing over which to use. For a local service business, presence only is the safer choice. Someone searching from another city for a plumber in your town is rarely a customer, so interest targeting mostly just adds clicks you'll never convert.

Some businesses can look like exceptions, though. A hotel that draws travelers is the obvious one. Interest can pull in people researching a trip who may never actually book, so the extra volume isn't necessarily useful. I'd stick with presence and only open up interest once the search terms from outside the area show real conversions. Has anyone run a clean split on this, or do you just trust the default?

Iris, I don't think presence only is the right default for a hotel. Most room bookings come from people planning a trip from somewhere else, so if you only show ads to people already in your area, you're mostly reaching locals and people already in town. Interest targeting is what gets you into the planning window. Your plumber example works because that purchase is same-day and local.

I'd decide by how far ahead people buy, not by business type. Same-day services should stay on presence. Anything with a planning window, like hotels, tours or dental implants, may need interest. To check, pull up the location report and compare conversion rates for out-of-area clicks against local ones. And if you can, put the interest traffic in its own campaign so the numbers don't get averaged together.

Elena, I'm not sure the buying cycle alone settles this. Interest targeting only means someone showed interest in the place, so you get casual browsers as easily as planners, and a long booking window doesn't guarantee those clicks will book. I'd let cost per booking for out-of-area clicks in the location report decide it.

Priya, I wouldn't let the location report settle this on its own. A hotel booking can land two or three months after the click, so a month of out-of-area data will make that interest look weaker than it really is. Small properties also only get a handful of conversions per area, so cost per booking can swing a lot from one week to the next. Set your conversion window to match how far ahead people actually book, and let a full booking cycle pass before you cut anything.